Gate structures in the agricultural field are usually of a swinging hinge type that are manually releasably locked and then manually swung to open and closed positions therefor. Mounting and dismounting from a vehicle to be driven through the gateway is thus required at each side of the gateway. As a result, the use of these hinge gates is both inconvenient and objectionable and especially when undue manual effort is required in some instances to handle the gate.
Chain gates have been used to overcome the inconvenience of handling hinge gates by virtue of their adaptability to be generally vertically movable to gateway opening and closing positions therefor. In this respect, chain members extendable across the gateway are collapsed to a gateway opening position and elevated to extend thereacross in a gateway closing position. However, these prior chain gate devices have not been generally successful due to the chain members or the actuating devices therefor having a tendency to become entangled during movement of the chain members between open and closing positions. Thus, for example, the chain structure of U.S. Pat. No. 1,642,875 has one end thereof hung from an adjacent end post for manipulation of its opposite end to gateway opening and closing positions. In the gate structure of U.S. Pat. No. 1,481,044, both ends of the chain structure are secured to end posts which are then swingable in the same direction to ground supported positions when the gate is in the open position therefor. The gate structure is thus longer than the width of the gateway by an amount equal to the height of an end post. These disadvantages are eliminated by the gate structure of the present invention.